Railroad signaling device



C. J. CHAMALES.

RAILROAD SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 19. 920.

1,354,954. Patented Oct. 5, 1920,

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RAILROAD SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MN- 19, I920.

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CHRIST JAMES CHAMALES, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RAILROAD SIGNALING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 5., 1920.

Application filed. January 19, 1920. Seriaf- No. 352,401.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHRIST JAMns CHA- MALES, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook andState of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement inRailroad Signaling Devices, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description.

My invention relates to improvements in railroad signaling devices, andit consists in the'combinations. constructions and arran ements hereindescribed and claimed.

An object of my invention is to provide a railroad signaling devicewhich will indicate to the engineer of a train his location, as, forinstance, where a train is approaching a bend in the track which shouldbe taken at a low speed, by operating an audible signal in the cab ofthe engine.

A further object of my invention is to provide a signaling device whichis simple in construction, positive in operation, and not liable toeasily get out of order.

A. further object of my invention is. to provide a signaling devicewhich is actuated by auxiliary track crate inductively and which are notsubject to the difficulties that attend signaling devices that areoperated by making electrical contacts with track devices.

A further object of my invention is to provide a signaling device, bymeans of which an engineer may positively know that he is on the righttrack, even though he may be unable to see the track, as, for instance,in a blinding snow storm.

@ther objects and advantages will appear in the following specification,and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed outin the appended claims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming partof this application, in which Figure 1 is a sectional view of a portionof a car or cab of an engine, with my improved invention appliedthereto,

Fig. 2 is a front view of a track,

.Fig. 3 is a plan view of a contact lever,

Fig. i is a plan view of a portion of a track, equipped with auxiliarydevices,

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a pair of tracks, showing the use of thesignaling device,

Fig. 6 is a view of a modified form of track equipment, and

Fig. 7 is a sectlonal view of a car, showon the bracket 10, and

devices which oping the contact lever and magnets disposed on the bottomthereof.

In carrying out my invention, I provide on the under side of a cab orcar 1 a bracket 2 having a pivot rod or fulcrum 3, upon which is mounteda contact lever 4. The latter is provided with a counterweight 5 at oneend, and at the opposite end bears an electro-Inagnet 6 which isconnected by means of conductors 7 and 8 with a battery 9. Theelectro-ina'gnet is designed to be energized continuously, a battery ofthe gravity type being preferably used.

At the opposite end of the lever i, 2'. 6., on the same side of thecounterweight 5, is an insulating bracket 10 which is provided with twocontacts 11 and 12 respectively. These contacts are showndiagrammatically in Fig. 1, but are preferably spring contacts and arearranged to be bridged by the end 13 of the lever 4. which normallyrests which is insulated from the remaining portion of the lever by anysuitable insulation 14.

The contacts 11 and 12 are connected with a battery-15, a buzzer 16 orother audible electro-magnetical dev1ce, and ries with the battery, asshown.

Referring now particularly to Fig. i, It have shown therein-a trackconsisting of track rails 17 and ties 18; Disposed on the ties areauxiliary devices 19. These are preferably iron or steel rails or bars.They arelocated at places where they may act in conjunction with theoperation already described to effect the sounding of the audible signalon the car or cab.

From the fore oing description t rious parts of the device, theoperation thereof may be readily understood. As has been stated, thebars 19 are disposed along the track, and the engineer or conductorknows that at a given station he should receive three rings from thebuzzer or audible signal, While the train is passing over the track.Normally the lever a is in the posisition shown in Fig. 1, being held inthis position by the weight 5, so that the spring contacts 11 and 12 aredisconnected and the buzzer or audible signal 16 is silent. When,however, the magnet 6 passes above one of the bars 19, it is attractedtoward the bar. The magnet never touches the bar, being kept from actualcontact therewith by the fact that the opposite end of the lever springsupwardly, bringing the portion 18 this in sebuzzer will be againsounded. For an arrangement such as shown in Fig. 4, the buzzer will besounded three times, and Wlll into engagement with the spring contacts'11 and 12, so as to bridge these contacts and thus indicate totheengineer or conductor the particular station or the partlcular placeon the track at which the train or engine has arrived. In thedrawing, Ihave shown the auxiliary bars 19 as being much shorter than they wouldactually be in reality, this being due to the fact that the limitedspace would not permit the correct relative showing. Also in Fig. 1,theswitching apparatus is shown greatly enlarged, this being for thesake of illustration only.

. In -Fig. 5, I have shown a double track arrangement in which thesignaling device may be very effectively used. It will be noted that onthe track 20 there are five auxiliary bars which I have indicated at19*, while on the track 21 there are three bars which I have indicatedat 19. A connecting track 22 is shown joining the two tracks 20 and 21.Assuming that atthe position where the bars 19 and 1 9 are located, theengineer knows that he will get a signal to indicate the proper stationor place, as, for instance, five rings on track 20, and that, due to ablinding snow storm, he can- .not see the track, he will be sure ofbeing on the right track at the position when he gets the five ringsthat he naturally expects at this point. If, however, the switch shouldbe so placed that the train should be accidentally shunted off ontotrack 21, then the engineer will getthree rings only, and he will knowat once that he is oni the wrong track and may stop the train in'time toprevent accident.

In Fig. 6 I have shown a modified form of track arrangement, in whichthe bars 19*, 19", and 19 are arranged side by side, but on differentparts of the track. The trains would have their signalingdevicesarranged correspondingly, so that a train, with its signalingdevices.arranged above the bars 19, would get three rings, one arranged abovethe bars 19 would get four, and one arranged with the 'signal devicesarranged above the bars 19 would get five rings at this particularposition. In this case, as in the preceding case, illustrated in Fig. 5,should an engine or car get on the track where it was not designed togo, the engineer or conductor would get a signal which would indicate tohim at once that he was on the wrong track.

en the magnet has can be made.

The device described above acts magnetically, and not by direct electriccontact with one of the track rails or bars. It will, therefore, not bedependent upon a good electrical contact, and will be little influencedby snow or ice. The device will serve as an ample warning for anyengineer who passes by a visible signal, since, where the track bars areplaced near visible signals, they will invariably sound the audiblesignal on the train, if the visible si al has not been seen or has beendisregarde The use of the device to indicate the proper. track isespecially advantageous in those arrangements where a multiplicity oftracks are encountered, as, for instance,

when entering 'a large city. Moreover, by

placing bars, such as those shown at 19, diagonally on the track,emergency signals Thus, if a bridge should be down, and it is desired tosignal a train moving at high speed, which will be due in half an houror so, one has only to place the bars 19 on the track in order to givethe engineer or conductor ample warning of the impending danger.

While I have described in detail the construction of the device, it isobvious that spirit or the scope of the invention.

If a stray piece of metal should be attracted by the .magnet 6, theadditional weight of the metal may cause the downward movement of themagnet, and the closing of the contacts 11 and 12, thereby causing theringing of the audible signal 16. The stray piece of metal may bedropped by opening the switch 50. Then the switch is again closed, theapparatus is ready for its normal operation. In order that theengineermay know that the magnet is in working order a small electriclight 51 is placed in the circuit of the battery 9. As-long as the lightis on, the engineer knows that the magnet is in good working order, andshould the light go out, he would at once know that something was wrongwith the circuit, and could make the necessary repairs in time toprevent accident.

It is obviousthat instead of having an electro-magnet on the vehicle,the electromagnet, together with the signaling device, might be placedon the track, and the metal bar might be carried by the train, withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. Instead of using an audiblesignal, a visible signal, such as a light, or a movable indicator, mightbe used.

claim: I

1. The combination with a'track having a magnetizable metal bar, of arailway vehicle adapted to run on the track, an electrically operatedsignal carried by the railway vehicle, a local circuit having a sourceof current for energizing the signal,

a lever having a counterweight at one end,

a magnet carried by the lever at the opposite end and being norr'nallyoverbalanced by said counterweight, a conductor carried by the end ofthe lever bearing the counterweight and insulated from saidcounterweight, said conductor being moved to close the local circuitwhen'the magnet is in the field of attraction of said bar, whereby thesignal is operated. I

2. The combination with a track having a magnetizable metal bar, of arailway vehicle adapted to run on the track, an electrically operatedaudible signal carried by the railway vehicle, a local circuit having asource of current for energizing the signal, a lever having acounterweight at one end, a magnet carried by the lever at the oppositeend and being normally overbalanced by said counterweight, the end ofthe lever bearing the counterweight being arranged to close the localcircuit when the magnet is in the field of attraction of said bar,whereby the signal is sounded.

3. The combination with a track having a magnetizable metal bar, of arailway vehicle adapted to run on the track, a lever carried by .thevehicle, an electro-magnet mounted on one end of said lever, a source ofcurrent carried by the vehicle for constantly energizing theelec'tro-magnet, a

counterweight for counterbalancing the electro-magnet, a bracket carriedby the vehicle, one end of said lever being insulated from the main bodyportion of the leverand arranged to rest normally on said bracket, anelectrically operated audible signa1,a local circuit therefor, includinga battery anda pair of contacts, said contacts being carried by saidbracket and arranged to be bridged by, the movement of the end of thelever when the electro-magnet is in the field of attraction of the bar.

CHRIST JAMES CHAMALES. r

